Jovenel Moise sworn in as Haiti's new president

Yahoo – AFP, Amelie BARON, February 7, 2017

New Haitian President Jovenel Moise arrives at the Te Deum during his inauguration
ceremony at the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, on February 7, 2017 (AFP Photo/
HECTOR RETAMAL)

Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Jovenel Moise was sworn in Tuesday as Haiti's 58th president, ending a protracted electoral crisis that had created a power vacuum in the impoverished, disaster-prone Caribbean nation.

Moise, a 48-year-old banana exporter who has never held political office but ran as the candidate of the center-right Tet Kale Party (PHTK), took the oath at a ceremony at the National Assembly.

He was former president Michel Martelly's hand-picked choice to lead the poorest country in the Americas, one still struggling to recover from devastating natural disasters.

"The Haitian people have spoken: it has chosen to entrust the reins of power to a young, dynamic man" who has ideas "to get the country out of the misery and political instability that has been holding back its growth and development for too long," said National Assembly President Youri Latortue.

Haiti is fighting to emerge from the world's most significant cholera outbreak, with an estimated 30,000 cases expected this year, as well as the effects of the January 2010 earthquake, with tens of thousands of people still camping in tents without proper sanitation.

The government and aid officials have said Haiti needs nearly $300 million to provide urgent assistance for its most vulnerable inhabitants, including those affected by Hurricane Matthew last October.

The hurricane caused $2.8 billion in damage, and more than 1.5 million people are still in dire need of humanitarian assistance, said El-Mostafa Benlamlih, Representative of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Musicians await the arrival of new Haitian President Jovenel Moise at his

 inauguration ceremony at the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, on February 7, 

2017 (AFP Photo/HECTOR RETAMAL)

Lengthy political crisis

Moise's election brings to a close a political crisis that began in October 2015 when the results of a first round of voting -- which Moise won -- were annulled because of massive fraud.

In February 2016, with Martelly's five-year term nearing its end and his political succession in limbo, Haiti's parliament elected Jocelerme Privert, president of the Senate at the time, to be interim president.

The presidential election was rescheduled for October and then postponed to November in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.

Haiti's political temperature remains high, with several of Moise's main opponents contesting his first-round victory.

The businessman is also at the center of an unresolved money laundering probe. He denies any wrongdoing.

The investigation was launched in 2013 as a routine bank-regulation procedure. The Central Financial Intelligence Unit (UCREF) forwarded a secret report about the inquiry to prosecutors last summer.

However, the investigating judge took no action until four opposition senators recently demanded information about the findings.

The judge delivered the conclusions to the government prosecutor, who has made no public announcements on the case.

Moise was declared the winner with 55 percent of the votes, but with a dismal turnout of just 21 percent.

People gather outside during the inauguration ceremony of the new President, 

Jovenel Moise on February 7, 2017 in Port-au-Prince (AFP Photo/Pierre Michel Jean)

Austere inauguration

After the swearing-in ceremony, the 2,000-plus guests took seats in the courtyard of the presidential palace to attend a religious ceremony and hear Moise speak.

The event took place on the site of the presidential palace, which was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.

Austerity has been the motto of the inauguration ceremony, as Haiti is suffering from an economic crisis with more than $2 billion in debt and anemic growth that is not expected to surpass one percent this year.

According to Moise's transition team, the inaugural costs are close to $1 million, a tighter budget than those of predecessors Rene Preval and Martelly, which cost more than $4 million and $2 million, respectively.

While Martelly -- the sole former Haitian president at the ceremony -- is a well-known entertainment figure, Moise remains largely unknown to the broader public.

Moise said he had invited 53 other former presidential candidates to signal his willingness to ease political tensions.

The inauguration "of a democratically elected president allows Haiti to return to democratic and constitutional rule," US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

Canada in turn "reaffirmed its friendship and solidarity with Haiti," and "looks forward to working" with the Moise government, the ministry of international development said in a statement.

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, March 20, 2016)

Matthew Ward - April 20, 2016

Matthew Ward

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew. We begin by addressing the issue that most of your expressed concerns pertain to, global reset. What is its purpose, who is behind it, and how will it affect your bank accounts and investments? While we have not used the more recently-coined term, “global reset,” several years ago we started talking about what it is—the changeover from your current monetary system, which has no foundation whatsoever, to a system based on precious metals. The transition process will be handled as smoothly as possible to minimize disruption in financial services and anyone whose money has been honestly earned and invested need have no concerns.

Whoever sets the rules for the world’s banking and lending institutions and interest rates controls the economy. After individuals in Bavaria who felt superior to the masses designated themselves “the Illuminati” and subsequently expanded their influence in all directions, that secret society has applied their rules worldwide. They did so with ease, as long before they came on the scene, the stage had been set by a few rich and powerful families whose greed, ingenuity and ruthlessness gave them economic control.

Global reset is a significant step toward ending that centuries-long control. Although the term is not used, its purpose—to stabilize the global economy by putting all currencies on the gold standard—is one of several provisions in NESARA, the acronym for National Economic Security and Reformation Act that was written by some of Earth’s Golden Age master planners in collaboration with evolved residents of Earth. Even today relatively few people are aware of this United States legislation signed by President Bill Clinton in 2000 because those who knew about it were bound by a “gag order” that he and other Illuminati members of the government imposed.

After the Act became publicized to some extent via dissemination of information transmitted by off-planet sources to their receivers, the government set up a disinformation Web site—National Economic Stabilization [later changed to Security] and Recovery Act—and incorrect information about NESARA was circulated to mislead people who had heard about it. Never has it been an investment program, nor does it include the delivery of “prosperity packages,” depositing millions of dollars in bank accounts or cancelling legitimate debts.

The authentic NESARA was to be announced worldwide and go into effect September 12, 2001. To prevent that world-changing event, President George W. Bush and his Illuminati colleagues ordered the infamous betrayal of their country commonly known as “9/11.” That also let them move forward on their pre-planned invasion of Iraq under the “war on terror” banner.

It would be natural to wonder why a program that has monumental global ramifications began with legislation in the United States. First, NESARA’s provisions had to be framed within your laws; otherwise, it would be a matter of souls from other civilizations imposing their ideas upon the people of Earth, and universal laws prohibit that kind of interference even when it is in the people’s best interests.

Second, it was imperative that the profound changes the Act contains be implemented first in the United States because it was the most Illuminati-ridden and the most powerful nation in your world. Although the latter status now shares the spotlight, that government’s actions still heavily influence what happens in many other countries. And it was necessary to act on NESARA’s provision that changes the United States’ corporate status that had been surreptitiously set up by the Illuminati to a republic, as was intended by the colonists who waged the war for independence.

The Act’s primary economic thrust is something that could not be spelled out in any legislation: legally obtaining the vast wealth that has been illegally and immorally amassed by the Illuminati and using those funds to eliminate impoverishment, which, by and large, is of their creating. Let us cite an example that you may remember from previous messages. The hurricane that devastated Haiti was caused by the Illuminati’s weather control technology; after the storm subsided, former US presidents Bush and Clinton went there to divert into their own pockets the monies donated for aid and reconstruction. As for the people of Haiti, these six years later they still are living in unsanitary, substandard conditions just as before the hurricane hit, and many residences are makeshift hovels amidst the rubble of destroyed communities.

The unconscionable disparity between the haves and the have-nots in your world caused an imbalance in Earth’s energy field that must be remedied, and other NESARA provisions also are designed to do that. They cancel debts incurred through IMF loans; end usurious interest rates; topple the privately-owned Federal Reserve System, whose tentacles span the globe, and its collection agency, the IRS; and end the currency trading that has enabled the Illuminati to reap fortunes, and that is where global reset fits in.

Recently a reader wrote: “I remember last year, or the year before...he [Matthew] said we wouldn’t get the global money exchange till 2017.” That is a considerable misinterpretation of what we said:

That said, we happily tell you that the decade of delay in your society’s advancement will end in your year 2017, a most propitious timeframe indeed with a celestial window similar to the one during the December 2012 solstice that eased Earth into fourth density. [September 23, 2014]

After that message went out, numerous readers had questions about that statement, and we want to mention one: Do you mean that no important developments can happen until the end of 2017? Dear brothers and sisters, important developments have been happening ever since Earth embarked on her ascension course 80-some years ago! However, it is likely that the first development to be unmistakably obvious to your whole world will be global reset. This complex process requires the cooperation of a large number of national leaders, and, with ever-rising vibrations, their agreement to proceed could come this year. If not that soon, please don’t be disappointed—an honest, secure foundation for your global economy is on the near horizon.

The “Panama papers” will lead to another significant economic reform. The international law firm whose records were hacked and released to the media always has acted within the laws that regulate the establishing of shell companies; firms in the United States and other countries that also set up these kinds of companies for their clients are regulated as well. After providing this service, the firms no longer are involved. While it has long been known that many wealthy individuals are using shell companies to hide their money and avoid paying taxes on it, there was no evidence to prove their criminal activity. The Panamanian firm’s files with names of their clients’ companies gave a starting point for the ongoing investigation into the maze of illegal steps taken by the owners to cover their tracks, discoveries that will result in striking down the laws that permit the formation of “shells.”

“This year I've been receiving a lot of messages from different people about the tithe. I would like to know what Matthew has to say about it.” Giving 10% of one’s income to the church was a Vatican edict that enabled popes and others high in the church hierarchy to live in opulence and parish priests to live comfortably while poverty was the lot of many in the Catholic congregation. Other religions adopted the tithe to build grand churches to “praise God.” Church is nota building, it is each individual’s personal relationship with God; sharing from the heart is godliness, the tithe was devised by man with greed as its taproot. When the peoples realize that Christianity was organized by the heads of church and state to control the masses and enrich themselves and other religions also were corrupted by the infiltration of dark minds, all dogmas will fall by the wayside and the pureness of spirituality will endure.

“I just heard about this movement for a new world government. Matthew assured us this would neverhappen!!!!” In many messages we have assured you that the Illuminati never will attain their goal of world domination. Without knowing what this reader heard, all we can say to all of you is, please do not associate a centralized governing body with One World Government or New World Order, two designations for the Illuminati’s global domination plan that includes eliminating most of the population—the “useless eaters,” as attributed to Henry Kissinger. We reassure you, that plan is doomed because their global network came apart at the seams and the fragments are unraveling.

Freedom burns in the heart of humankind, yet rarely have Earth’s peoples lived freely. For long ages strongmen increased their landholdings and power by brutal conquest—troops were forced into battle; untold numbers were killed, captured, or sold into slavery; and all except the privileged few lived at bare subsistence level. After governing systems were labeled, the Illuminati made a mockery of democracy by putting ones within their ranks as candidates; rigging elections; and bribing, blackmailing, threatening or assassinating members of governments. They declared what country must be fought to keep us safe from that kind of government or that ideology, and they started civil and international wars.

Like their forbearers, they thrived on war. By producing and selling weapons, ammunitions and other war machinery to both sides, they profited handsomely. By setting new national borders or simply taking over a country and subjugating its populace, they kept expanding their empire. By infiltrating governments, military forces, intelligence agencies, judicial and economic systems, religions, education, media, commerce, multinational corporations, the medical field, film industry and entertainment venues, eventually they controlled everything that impacts life in your world. By relentlessly creating fear, grief, unjustness and poverty, conditions that produce the energy that fuels them, they have kept your world in their clutches.

That long sad chapter of your history is nearing its end. It is Gaia’s desire that all peoples of Earth live freely, peaceably, cooperatively across boundaries, across seas, and all share equally in the planet’s natural abundance. In keeping with her desire, the best aspects of your governing philosophies and visionary ideas will be blended into a global system led by individuals with moral and spiritual integrity and whose wise leadership will maintain peace and prosperity. Beloved family, the world you are helping to create in linear time and exists in the continuum—Earth’s Golden Age abloom in all its glory—is grandly flourishing within that benevolent governance.

“If Light on the planet actually is continually intensifying, why is there still so much random violence? Why aren’t peace talks successful in ending wars? It is lamentably so that progress in those respects is moving slowly. By and large, this is due to individuals’ resistance to change what they are accustomed to—a belief, policy, tradition, procedure, habit or anything else that is familiar. Let us give an example that you may not have considered as a deterrent to raising the consciousness level and spiritual awareness of your society.

Some candidates running for office in the United States are pledging adherence to the Constitution, a document compiled when owning slaves was white people’s right and only men were considered capable of voting intelligently. Well before the Bill of Rights granted citizenship to former slaves and permitted women to cast ballots, there was A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The second amendment, written about 225 years ago, provided for the young country’s readiness in case the British tried to regain control and arms were muskets. Yet many citizens cite this amendment as their right to have weapons designed for today’s battlefields, and some believe they will need to use those weapons when “… they’re going to declare martial law so they can take our guns away.” Energy generated by those thoughts and feelings not only adds momentum to the proliferation of weapons, it is manifesting a standoff because it’s conflicting with energy directed toward ending violence and achieving a world at peace.

By no means is that the only resistance factor, but its deterrence to an awakened society needs to be recognized. What is greatly heartening is, as vibratory levels keep rising, increasingly people will become enlightened and eagerly welcome progressive changes.

“Would you please be so kind as to ask Matthew about the flat earth and the firmament as mentioned in the ancient scriptures and also, in the bible.” We say that individuals who long ago recorded their celestial observations did so without the knowledge that a solar system with one flat planet amidst the spheres defies universal laws of physics. The belief that Earth is flat gives no credence to your scientific knowledge, and it is the same with the belief that a few thousand years ago God created Earth in six days.

We also have been asked about the “New Earth,” described as a pristine planet where light beings will be transported while the dark ones stay on the “first” Earth to continue battling and devastating the environment. Eons ago in linear time the soul Gaia chose to incarnate as a planet, which somewhere along the line came to be called Earth, and she has no intention of abandoning her body or occupying two. Your technology, which has been suppressed and misused by the Illuminati, and the advanced technology that your universal family will bring when they can safely join you, will restore Earth to her original Eden self. It is her destiny to once again be a healthy, beauteous, peaceful homeland for all of her residents.

Lighted beings throughout this universe honor your steadfast service that is bringing ever nearer that wondrous era, and we are with you in loving spirit all along your journey.

LOVE and PEACE

Suzanne Ward

Website: The Matthew Books

Email: suzy@matthewbooks.com

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American Red Cross squandered aid after Haiti earthquake, report alleges

Despite raising nearly half a billion dollars and allocating $170m to ‘shelter relief’, the aid organization built only six permanent homes, an investigation has found

The Guardian, Alan Yuhus, 4 June 2015

An undated American Red Cross handout photo of the aftermath of the earthquake
shows the devastation to homes in Haiti. Photograph: Matt Marek/American
Red Cross/PA

Despite collecting nearly half a billion dollars for Haiti earthquake relief, the American Red Cross has built only six permanent homes and seemingly squandered millions in the country, according to a new report.

A joint investigation by ProPublica and NPR uncovered rampant mismanagement, high overhead costs and deeply rooted acrimony from Haitians toward the aid organization. Among the investigation’s findings was that although the Red Cross apportioned about $170m to the category of “shelter” relief, and although it at first planned to build some 700 houses, it only constructed six permanent homes.

The report charges the Red Cross with consistent misrepresentation of its projects, especially in housing. The authors cite promotional materials that say the Red Cross provided more than 130,000 people with homes, and then note that that total includes people in “transitional shelters”, recipients of short-term rent assistance, and people who had been “trained in proper construction techniques”.

The Red Cross disputes the report and asserts it has “helped build and operate eight hospitals and clinics” and “move more than 100,000 people out of make-shift tents into safe and improved housing”. In a statement, the organization said it is “disappointed” by the “lack of balance, context and accuracy” on the part of ProPublica and NPR.

A major problem for the organization was leadership and staffing, according to the report. Integral positions, including experts for health and shelter, were left vacant for months and sometimes years. The positions that were staffed were predominantly held by expats or by people flown in from the United States, many of whom could not speak French or Creole.

In one 2011 document, Red Cross official Judith St Ford notes that there are “serious program delays caused by internal issues that go unaddressed”, including for cholera relief.

“There is a clear lack of foresight and planning,” she wrote, and “the lack of leadership ability has contributed to poor morale in the field.”

She also urged her superiors to hire more Haitians: “the implication that talented, smart, competent Haitians cannot be found in Haiti has to be dispelled.”

In its statement the Red Cross says 90% of its current staff are Haitians; the organization did not break down the hierarchy or positions of its staff.

“If they were an organization that had a real history in Haiti I think this would’ve gone a lot better,” said Justin Elliott, one of the journalists who co-wrote the report. “The entire Haiti reconstruction effort has been really problematic, but the outside groups that have done better have roots there, have Haitian people working at high levels, have people who speak the language.”

In one 2013 email published by ProPublica, CEO Gail McGovern admitted a project had failed and that she did not know what to do with a $20m remainder. “Now that the Northern project is going bust and we are still holding $20 million of contingency, any ideas on how to spend the rest of this?” she asked, before mentioning a mysterious “wonderful helicopter idea”.

Without Haitians in leadership positions, the Red Cross was particularly ill-prepared to deal with Haiti’s land tenure rules, a system so tangled and unforgiving that it has intimidated USAid and Vatican relief efforts.

Residents of the Jean-Marie Vincent camp for people displaced by the 2010
earthquake, wait for customers outside their tent where they have set up a
stand to sell rice, oil and canned goods in Port-au-Prince on 9 January 2013.
Photograph: Dieu Nalio Chery/AP

“Land tenure is probably the biggest stumbling block,” said Jonathan M Katz, a freelance journalist and author of a book about the earthquake, The Big Truck That Went By. The system has stymied aid organizations for years, and Katz said that for years aid organizations have “thrown up their collective hands and said ‘we don’t really want to deal with this.’”

The Red Cross entangled itself in a web of other organizations, often paying them to do relief work, themselves struggling in Haiti. This outsourcing is commonplace in the international aid industry, Katz said, and leads to inevitable but not necessarily unreasonable overhead costs. But eager to better solicit donations, organizations often try to downplay these costs.

The report notes that overhead charges by the Red Cross and its contractors undermine McGovern’s claim that “minus the nine cents overhead, 91 cents on the dollar will be going to Haiti.”

In one case, Elliott and his co-author, NPR’S Laura Sullivan, found that the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) exacted $1.56m in overhead from the American Red Cross’s payment of $6m, all to help give Haitians rental subsidies so they could leave tent camps. The IFRC said the costs were related to “administration, finance, human resources”.

In another case, the Red Cross commissioned Swiss and Spanish Red Cross societies to upgrade shelters, but still took 24% of the money for the project in additional overhead costs, according to the report.

Where exactly the $488m of the American Red Cross’s Haiti budget has gone is unclear, Elliott said, since “the whole international aid sector is pretty opaque in general. And the spending of the American Red Cross is incredible opaque. You can tell hardly anything from their disclosures.”

He said that the issue of money was particularly sensitive to Haitians who had coordinated with the Red Cross.

“They were furious basically over broken promises,” Elliott said. “About three years ago, the Red Cross told people they were going to build hundreds of new homes in this very hard-hit area, and this thing was just stalled. Over the next two years they had meetings with the community, handed out juice boxes and so on, and nothing happened for a long time.”

The Red Cross is now helping build a road and install solar lights in the area.

Katz said that the problems of the American Red Cross are “typical of the aid industry in general. The Red Cross is sort of the biggest kid on the block. Because they make way more money than anybody else, what they do is magnified.”

The interconnected NGOs and aid organizations of the world, ranging from the many satellites of the Red Cross to Doctors Without Borders to the Clinton Foundation, Katz said, should deserve more skepticism from the public. Reports have traced the 2011 cholera epidemic to United Nations relief efforts, he noted, adding that many organizations operate more like businesses than anything else.

“Even when an aid group is pulling off a project well,” he said, “if it isn’t going to be there forever, if it isn’t going to be accountable for successes and failures, if it isn’t leaving something behind that’s permanent, then it’s still capable of doing damage.”

Last year the Red Cross similarly took issue with another ProPublica report that said the organization had disastrously mismanaged aid relief after hurricane Sandy.

Hollande's Haiti visit draws protests

For many Haitians, the French president's visit reopened old wounds stemming from France's legacy of colonialism on the island. Some residents insist France pay reparations for its past crimes.

Deutsche Welle, 13 May 2015

Workers off the beach in the village of Basse-Terre along the southeastern
coast of Ile de la Tortue in the northwest region of Haiti attempt to fix a damaged
boat in early October 2014. (Patrick Farrell/Miami Herald/TNS)

French President Francois Hollande was in Haiti Tuesday to pledge economic assistance to the impoverished Caribbean nation, becoming the first of his country's presidents to make a formal state visit to France's former colony.

Abundant natural resources and plantation slavery once made Haiti France's most prized Caribbean possession, before the residents of what was then called St. Domingue gained independence from their French colonizers in an 1804 slave revolt.

For Haiti's government and business community, Hollande's visit is viewed as an opportunity to encourage investment and highlight the island nation's recovery from a devastating 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of the capital of Port-au-Prince and surrounding regions.

But for some Haitians, Hollande's visit has reopened old wounds and is an unpleasant reminder of the crippling costs of the country's successful revolt for independence.

'Punished for our independence'

In 1825, encircled by French warships enforcing an international embargo, Haiti agreed to pay France an "independence debt" of 90 million gold coins in order to compensate former colonists for the costs of lost land and slaves. That sum is estimated to be worth $19 billion (17 billion euros) today.

"We Haitians know that a big reason why we are suffering today is because we were forced to pay France for our freedom. If we were not punished for our independence long ago, we would have had a better time," said Port-au-Prince resident Jean-Marc Bouchet to the Associated Press.

France will spend $145 million over
 the next five years on development
projects in Haiti

Some 200 protesters greeted Hollande upon his arrival at the Champ de Mars plaza to lay wreathes at the statues of heroes of Haiti's revolution.

"No negotiation, no compensation can repair the wounds of history that still mark us today," said Haitian President Michel Martelly. "Haiti has not forgotten, but Haiti is not stubborn," he added, attempting to quell the demands of many Haitians that France pay reparations for its brutal colonial legacy on the island.

"There is a moral debt that exists," Hollande said. "We can't change history, but we can change the future," he added.

France has refused to pay reparations, but Hollande said his nation will spend $145 million (130 million euros) over the next five years on development projects in Haiti, including $56 million (50 million euros) for education.

Doubt and cynicism

But for some Haitians, Hollande's pledge of economic assistance fell on deaf ears, with many in the impoverished nation demanding France pay for its past crimes.

"We believe French reparations should go to schools, hospitals, roads," 25-year-old law student Gymps Lucien, who was protesting Hollande's visit, told AP. "Our kids should have a better life."

Other residents were cynical about what President Martelly would do with the promised aid.

"He'll just keep it all for himself, and the poor will get nothing as usual" said protester Philistin Servilus, speaking with AFP. "France should build us houses and invest in factories, to give us jobs."

bw/cmk (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Ex-Haiti president Jean-Claude Duvalier dead at 63

Yahoo – AFP, Clarens Renois, Oct 4, 2014

Former Haitian president Jean-Claude Duvalier

 "Baby Doc" greets people on March 29, 2011

in Port au Prince (AFP Photo/Hector Retamal)

Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who ruled the impoverished Caribbean nation from 1971 until his ouster in 1986, died Saturday of a heart attack, officials here said. He was 63.

The death of Duvalier, who returned to Haiti in 2011 after 25 years of exile, was announced by the nation's health minister, Florence Guillaume Duperval.

"The family phoned us this morning asking us to send a (medical) helicopter," as the former dictator appeared be suffering a heart attack, she told AFP.

"They tried to administer first aid to him on the scene, but he died" a short time later, Duperval said.

Duvalier came to power when he was just 19 years old, after the death of his father Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

For a decade-and-a-half, the then-portly, boyish-looking Duvalier ruled as Haiti's self-proclaimed "president for life" until he was forced into exile in a popular uprising, as pro-democracy forces rallied in the streets amid international condemnation of the rampant human rights abuses during his regime.

Like his father, Baby Doc came to rule Haiti with an iron fist -- barring opposition, clamping down on dissidents, rubber-stamping his own laws and pocketing government revenue.

And like his ruthless father, he also made liberal use of the dreaded Tonton Macoutes, a secret police force loyal to the Duvalier family.

The notorious sunglass-toting Macoutes terrorized Haitians, arresting, torturing untold numbers of political opponents, thousands of whom vanished without ever being accounted for.

Raised amid intrigue and paranoia

Born in Port-au-Prince on July 3, 1951, the young Duvalier watched the intrigue and paranoia escalate in his father's 14-year government, which began in 1957 and saw waves of arrests, executions, bombings and 11 failed coups.

At the age of 11 he survived an attack that killed three of his bodyguards.

An estimated 30,000 people were killed during the reign of the Duvalier father and son, rights activists said.

The younger Duvalier fled Haiti in 1986 for a life of luxury in France, thanks to the hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly plundered from the coffers of the western hemisphere's most impoverished country.

Years of efforts to force his family to return the pilfered funds proved fruitless.

In the late 1990s former political prisoners brought charges of "crimes against humanity" against Baby Doc in a Paris court, claiming they were tortured over a period of years, but the lawsuit later foundered.

In 2007, Duvalier called on Haitians to forgive him for "mistakes" committed during his rule, even as the government in power at the time insisted he face trial.

At the time of his death, he was indeed charged in a slow-moving prosecution on corruption and embezzlement allegations dating to his years in power. He was said in reports to have looted as much as $300 million before being forced to flee.

Much of the money, however, was reported to have been frittered away on a lavish lifestyle filled with fancy homes, jewelry and cars.

Efforts to bring him to justice both in exile and after his return encountered numerous delays brought about by legal motions and appeals, and proved fruitless in the end.

Duvalier, who returned home the year after Haiti was leveled by devastating 2010 earthquake, was meant as a gesture of solidarity with the stricken nation, still mired in grinding poverty and widespread social turmoil.

Alfredo Zolezzi: how a plasma water purifying system is saving lives

Wired.co.uk, Nicholas Tufnell, 17 October 2013

"If we can connect people and their needs with the advancement of technology we will make a better world" claims Alfredo Zolezzi during his talk at Wired 2013.

Zolezzi is a Chilean industrial designer and an expert in applied technological innovations. He has created an integrated objectives model which he says allows for him to improve technological innovation and create greater social, emotional and developmental impact.

Alfredo Zolezzi (Nate Lanxon)

"For many years I was involved in innovation, but I discovered I was using 80 percent of my time just surviving and had little time to create," explains Zolezzi. "So I decided to study the innovation models that were already out there, but there were none. So I wrote my own innovation model and soon after I started creating some of my most effective products."

Zolezzi soon developed technology that enhanced the recovery of oil from abandoned oil wells "using high-frequency and high-powered ultrasound waves." He wished to innovate further to create new technologies that could significantly reduce the cost of refining oil, but something held him back.

"I could have made billions," he said, "but there is no future if we do not change the way we are addressing our current problems. Only 2.5 billion people have to access to clean water, we cannot ignore that reality. We are living the future but we are still struggling with the problems from the past."

Wishing to refocus his efforts on humanitarian needs, Zolezzi set out to create a novel way of purifying water. The answer was found in plasma.

Zolezzi created a plasma sanitation system that can sanitise 35 litres of water in five minutes at a cost per litre of less than one penny. The system injects water into a reaction chamber, where it achieves plasma state through a high-intensity electrical field. The microbiological content of the water is then eliminated by electroporation, oxidation, ionization, UV and IR radiation.

"This technology won't remove impurities like salt or heavy metals, but it will kill bacteria," Zolezzi explained. "In our last test, the plasma procedure killed off 100 percent of bacteria with 100 percent efficacy."

The system has been used in a Chilean slum, where Zolezzi says it has "improved their health, dignity and quality of life in an instant".

Zolezzi closed his speech remarking that his technology alone isn't enough, it's crucial that social technology is used in conjunction with this his new device to ensure people are aware of its existence and importance. He left the stage reminding us to "just think that there is always someone who is not as privileged as we are. We have problems, but all this privilege that we have is also our commitment".

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In Peru, a Highway Billboard That Turns Wind into Water

"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”

"The Time Capsule of Gaia" – Feb 9, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… Ideas and Inventions Are Not Random

Now, I want to revisit this because we're coming to the point of what I want to speak of, which we have not spoken of before. It seems unbelievable, but the fact is that ideas and inventions are given to the planet when it's ready, and not before. We told you last time that humanity believes it can "think of anything." The intellectual believes the sky is the limit in creativity. Yet, isn't it interesting that everything profound in ideas and inventions has come almost at the last moment? When you take a look at humanity and how long you've been here and how long there have been smart Human Beings, why is it that only in the last seeming second of time that almost all modern invention took place?

Imagine going through thousands of years without understanding what a bacteria was, or not believing in germs, or not having electricity. When you think about these things and the order in which they came to the planet, it's quite revealing. Many Humans were working on the same invention at the same time and didn't even know it. Suddenly, you received the invention of radio, then pictures that fly through the air, then flight. It all came together seemingly in the last moment. You've got to ask, do you not, how logical is this in the scheme of how things work? Did you have to come to a certain point in history before Humans got smart? Or do you think there was something else going on? The answer is there was something else going on. It seemed as though these ideas were being "delivered" to the planet all at the same time, and many were understanding these things suddenly all at once.

The Time Capsules

Here is what happened: Within that which you call Gaia, there is the Crystalline Grid. This is the memory of all things placed there by the Pleiadians. The Crystalline Grid was created for this purpose by the Pleiadians. When it's proper and when humanity's consciousness has reached a certain point, these ideas are released. It is a time capsule of invention and more. This does not happen from the great central sun; it does not happen from outside the earth, but rather it happens from within. …”

Four Years After Earthquake, Haiti Still in Ruins

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Clarens Renois, January 12, 2014

Haitian workers demolish part of the damaged presidential palace on
March 19, 2011 in Port-au-Prince. (AFP Photo/Hector Retamal)

Port-au-Prince. Four years after Haiti was hit by a violent earthquake, the dragging pace of reconstruction is nowhere more apparent than the capital, where its landmark presidential palace and cathedral remain in ruins.

Devastation caused by the Jan. 12, 2010 disaster, which killed more than 250,000 people, is still felt keenly in Port-au-Prince, the capital of the Americas’ poorest country.

“We are going to press on the accelerator to advance the main projects, and Haitians will be proud of reconstruction,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told the press on Friday, presenting models of several public buildings that are under construction.

Faced with criticism over the slow rebuilding of administrative buildings, including the legislative palace, Lamothe called on Haitians to unite together.

“Reconstruction is a shared concern, not just for President Michel Martelly and the government,” Lamothe said.

Dieudonne Saincy, spokesman for an opposition party, however, accused the current government of “completely passing over the plan for rebuilding the country, which was negotiated with international donors.”

He also acknowledged, however, that part of the problem was that some of the promised international aid was never disbursed.

He and Lamothe also both agreed that a large portion of the money – some 42 percent – had been spent on the post-earthquake emergency and not for reconstruction.

“We were lucky to have help from Venezuela. Most of our projects were accomplished with Venezuelan money. With slim means, we accomplished a lot of things,” Lamothe told AFP, expressing hope that the international community might pony up what remains to be paid.

Saincy said that political crisis had also caused diversion from the reconstruction projects.

Haiti has recently seen an increase in anti-government protests, giving rise to clashes.

Apart from calling for the resignation of Martelly, who has been in office since 2011, demonstrators are also demanding better living conditions.

Plans for rebuilding Port-au-Prince were presented to the public, but the construction never occurred.

“Reconstruction of the capital will require the creation of a new downtown and the creation of an administrative center,” Lamothe said.

More than a million people were left homeless and 42 public buildings were destroyed during the 2010 earthquake.

“The country was deeply hurt… we have resettled the homeless and the construction of seven ministry and public offices is underway” Lamothe told AFP during an interview.

However, nearly 200,000 people are living in dire conditions in temporary shelters, and residents complain of having received little help since NGOs left.

Meanwhile, civic organizations have called on the government to stop forced evictions, which have recently multiplied.

And the prime minister has asked the international community to provide promised aid of nearly $9 billion.

“If the international community had fulfilled its commitment, we would have accomplished 10 times more than we have achieved,” Lamothe said.

“We must continue to make the international community aware” he said.

“But Haiti is better off four years after the earthquake even if there remains much to be done.”

Agence France-Presse

Nearly four years after quake, Haitians still in tents

Google – AFP, Clarens Renois (AFP), 22 November 2013

Boys look out from their makeshift shelter at a camp for earthquake victims

in  Pétion-ville, Haiti on November 1, 2013 (AFP/File, Louis-Joseph Olivier)

Port-au-Prince — Eight-year-old Widlene Gabriel has lived nearly half her life in a camp for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the devastating January 2010 earthquake in desperately poor Haiti.

As the fourth anniversary of the disaster approaches, more than 170,000 Haitians are still living in makeshift housing, in extremely precarious conditions and sometimes facing eviction.

Widlene and her family live in a tent on a private lot along a main road linking the capital Port-au-Prince to the eastern suburb of Petionville.

The girl has never been to school and spends her days staring blankly at cars and trucks speeding along the road nearby.

A woman holds her child at a camp for

 earthquake victims in Pétion-ville, Haiti on

 November 1, 2013 (AFP/File, Louis-Joseph

Olivier)

"On January 12, 2010, the roof of our house fell on top of our heads. I wasn't hurt but our house fell apart and so we came here," Widlene recalls, her bare feet covered in dust.

Manette Nazius, a mother of six, says Widlene is hardly the only child seemingly left behind.

"All the kids here are in the same boat. All days are the same. They drag around all day. In fact, we are living without hope and we all feel abandoned," she says.

An estimated 250,000 people were killed in the quake, and the rebuilding process has been slow in Haiti, which was already one of the world's poorest countries when disaster struck.

In the immediate aftermath, more than 1.5 million people were homeless.

Huddled under Tent 15, which doubles as a church at the entrance of the camp, a small group of women chanted "Blessed be the lord. Blessed be the lord."

The pastor, in his 60s, stood at the entrance, but the faithful were few.

"We still support them in prayer," said the 60-something pastor, who gave his name as Pierre.

"They are people who have been abandoned by the authorities. They have nothing. But God does not punish twice."

Nevertheless, the young and homeless say they are without hope and feel they have been forgotten.

"No life"

Since 2011, the government has been able to relocate more than 60,000 families and take back some of the public spaces occupied by the unsanitary camps.

But about 172,000 people still live sprawled across 300 camps, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Residents of the camp where Widlene lives say they have no alternatives, surviving thanks to odd jobs and whatever food scraps they can gather.

"We live like brothers and sisters. We help each other out but we don't expect anything from the government," said Bladimir Eliancy, a 30-something resident who was trained as a mechanic.

At another camp -- a group of tents were set up on a property once owned by the Italian mission -- the feeling of despair is the same.

"We have been forgotten by the authorities and international organizations no longer visit us," said a dejected Donald Duvert.

A temporary church built by tent city

 residents provides services in Pétion-ville,

 Haiti on November 1, 2013 (AFP/File,

Louis-Joseph Olivier)

"Sometimes, we get angry. But we are good citizens. We don't go out into the streets to attack the rich. But just take a look at how we live," he added, pointing to the dilapidated tents that house 150 families.

Joseph Gino, seeking a bit of shade under a mango tree, echoed Duvert's hopelessness.

"Before, life was very difficult for us. Today, there is no life. Only God knows when we'll get out of here -- or maybe the decision-makers do," he said.

A mother with a four-year-old son born in the camp added: "At this time of the day, nobody can stay under the tents. The children are suffering from the heat under the tarps."

The boy has never slept in a bed or in a real room.

But some still hold out hope for a better future by advancing their studies to lift themselves out of decrepit poverty.

"I am a little bit behind, but it's my only exit," said 18-year-old Fabienne.